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Posted: February 2, 2010

Synopsys Acquires VaST Systems Technology Corporation

(Nanowerk News) Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, today announced it has acquired VaST Systems Technology Corporation to extend its virtual prototyping solutions into the automotive and consumer application space. The acquisition adds a comprehensive set of processor sub-system models frequently found in automotive and consumer applications to Synopsys' virtual prototyping portfolio. Processor sub-system models allow developers to accelerate the virtualization of electronic systems and to start software development nine to 12 months prior to the availability of silicon.

"In order to meet the stringent development requirements associated with today's growing electronics and software content in automotive and consumer products, developers are virtualizing their electronic sub-systems to start software development earlier, improve their productivity and deliver better-tested, higher quality products," said Joachim Kunkel, senior vice president and general manager of the solutions group at Synopsys. "By adding VaST's complementary virtual prototyping solutions to Synopsys' existing virtual and rapid prototyping product portfolio, we can deliver a robust system prototyping solution to automotive and consumer application developers."

Virtualization is a key technology to improve software development productivity and system verification. Virtual prototypes enable pre-silicon software development and complement traditional hardware/software verification approaches. They represent one of the fastest-growing opportunities in the system-level design and verification market segment.

The terms of the deal, which closed February 1, are not being disclosed. Synopsys does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on 2010 revenue or earnings per share (EPS).

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, software-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has more than 65 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India.